Ted Matthews

11.11.1896 - 1997

The Last Anzac

Landing at Gallipoli, some of them
were drowned getting out the back end
of the boat. They just drove the front
end onto the beach; the back end was
in deep water. They were in trouble
with 250 rounds of ammunition; that
alone was enough to sink them. We
didn’t carry that; we only carried 50
rounds ‘cause we were classed as
mounted troops and we had a
bandolier with only 50. I got out pretty
well onto sand. The infantry had
webbing equipment and they
carried the ammon on pouches each
side. Of course, they were the fighting
solider and they copped the worst
casualties. The first lot fought their
way on. The beach was under rifle fire
the whole time. We landed in a bad
place, practically no beach and hills
started straight up. Some say the
current took us to the wrong place.
I’ve got no idea. You had to keep your
heads down.

The third brigade made the first
landing. We were in the first brigade,
New South Welshman. The second
brigade was Victorian. The third
brigade made up the Division. There
were 12 Battalions in the first Division.
They were firing through loopholes
and steel plates, only a certain number
of places. If you put your head up, that
was suicide. Even so, some were
killed with shots going through the
loopholes ‘cause the Turks were pretty
good shots. Things were happening
that fast, all you could see was what
was happening around your own little
spot. Self-preservation, animal
instinct, that certainly applied there.

In France they could be relieved and
come out, but by the little bit I could
see around me at Gallipoli, the
infantry could get no relief. Slept in
the trenches. We had our own little
dugout where we slept. It was a hold
that we dug ourselves just big enough
for 3 of us to get below ground level.
I had 2 shot in it and I didn’t get a
scratch. One next to me got hit in the
leg, hit an artery, and they had no
blood transfusion, of course, in those
days. Later that day the other bloke
got hit in the neck, just missed his
spine. He survived the war - Harry
Osborne. They said, “If it’s got your
name on it, you’ll get it.” I was in that
one hole for most of the 9 months
except for a fortnight we were taken
to Lemnos... That was like a holiday
in heaven and we were issued with a
bittke if beer a day and we could buy
cognay. One officer, a captain, said,
“Not everybody drinks, so we won’t
put in an indent for so many.” A
Lieutenant Tinkler screamed, “Give us
the bloody thing! I’ll sign it!” What a
lousy thing to do, eh? After being on
Gallipoli all that time and lucky to get
water. There were all sorts in the
world, of course. Tinkler was a
Colonel at the finish.

The Allied line: The Anzacs held the Anzac Cove area.

They were bringing dead Turks
down and dragging them past us after
they’d been in the sun a couple of
days. We were sitting eating our
dinner while they dragged ‘em past us...
like dead dogs, and I though then
how quickly you get used to conditions.
War is a terrible thing.

I was attached to the second
Battalion for a while to maintain
telephone communication back to the
Brigade. See, we had some telephones
but no wireless. When we first landed,
we used flags. I suppose it did make
us prime targets and numbers of the
signallers were killed. Signalling
didn’t last long at Gallipoli ‘cause
signallers didn;t last long. Some of the
men had premonition they would be
killed; I don’t know why. You had to concentrat.
I never felt that I was going to get killed. Some felt
it and did; some felt it and didn’t.

How they came to be called the Diggers: We were
told when we got there that Birdwood wanted to
withdraw us but General Hamilton back on the ship
said, “No. Dig in and stay there. The deeper you
dig, the safer you’ll be.” And some of the soldiers
said, “Oh, we’re diggers now.”

I wasn’t in the trenches much. I was mostly
loading rifles. Those Turks were brave me, They
kept coming. They killed so many, had to call an
armistice to bury the dead. Yes, I saw Simpson
often in Shrapnel Gully. He was a brave man, of
course, to be doing that ‘cause he was out in the
open under fire and actually got killed doing it but
we didn’t take a lot of notice of him at the time.
Well, he gradually got built up in time. Of course,
all the others were exposed to fire a lot of the time.
He saved a lot of men under my eyes but we
though, “Oh just another medic.”

Birdwoow was the only General I know of that
was up in the front line and he got a lot of respect
from the troops for that, whatever his reason was.
That’s not a General’s place but he was well liked.
The British Officers thought they were more aloof
than that. Of course, in the British Army you could
buy your officer’s commission if you were a big
shot. In the Australian Army you had to earn your
commission. Much more class distinction in
England than compared to Australia where there
was practically none. The British Officers didn’t
mix with the men at all.

Albert Edward Matthews at 18, on his way to Gallpoli

On the landing day none of the troops had a
feeling of being defeated but Birdwood initially
wanted to withdraw the men. The final withdrawal
was the best organised thing of the lot. I don’t think
there was a man even wounded. They had 3 days’
silence - troops told not to fire unless attached, and
then when they did leave they set up rifles with
water dripping and we could actually hear our own
rifles firing when we were on the beach.

Gallipoli was a cow of a place. No water. Our
first rations were hard biscuits, like pieces of wood.
I used to wonder what God was doing at Gallipoli
but it’s really too deep to think about. I was never
sick there, despite all the dysentry caused by flies
and bad living conditions. A lot of sickness there is
in any war. I saw 2 warships sunk - the ‘Triumph’
and the ‘Majestic’. We had not much artillery
except small Indian mountain guns. The war ships
were firing over our heads. The ‘Queen Elizabeth’
was the biggest warship afloat at the time.
There was a Turkish machine gun that was giving
a lot of trouble. Albert Jacka went out by himself
and took the machine gun post... about 5 men,
killed the lot of them. How he did it I don’t know.
Must have just missed him. I actually witnessed
him climbing up and over. He did get a commission
after that. It was a brave act. There wouldn’t be
many that would get away with it if they tried.
They say he could have got the VC several times
over. They were the real fighters, the infantry. We
were with them but not of them, if you get what I
mean. We were there to maintain communication
between units. It was done later in France by phone
and dispatch riders on motor bikes but Gallipoli
was primitive - runners, flags.

It seems a terrible long time ago; seems like
another lifetime. Well, it’s over 80 years - more
than some people’s lifetime. I don’t know why I’ve
grown so old except that I haven’t died yet. I did all
sorts of things I shouldn’t have done. After
Gallipoli, I went to France in the 4th and 5th
Divisions and I was there till the war ended. I was a
corporal. I saw out the entire Great War.

We didn’t hate the Turks and they didn’t hate us.
We visited Turkey after and one old Turk said, “We
didn’t hate you. You had a job to do and we had a
job to do.” Turkey wanted to make a pact with
England one time and England wouldn’t do it. This
is in hindsight, but a politician should be able to see
ahead a bit, shouldn’t he? If they had, they would
have had the Dardanelles without fighting for it.
I blame Gallipoli on the bloody fools of the British
Empire.

We were all volunteers. I would say the
Australian Army was the only volunteer army in
the world. One of the things the soldiers in the
Australian Army were noted for was their mateship.
The Australian artillery was supposed to be the best
in the world, and our infantry went up against the
Prussian Guard (they were supposed to be the best)
and defeated them. Most of the battles were not
decisive, they didn’t settle anything. Not until
Villers-Bretonneux which was decisive and was
Australian troops only. I rode a horse for 3 hours
then marched for 19 hours to get there. That’s a
long march, 19 hours! They say the French were
packing up to leave their homes and the word came
that the Australians were coming so they stopped
packing and stayed. That’s the legend, anyway.
That was the final battle of the whole war; the
German army then completely collapsed. It was
good to be there. The Australians liberated more
French villages than any other army; drove the
Germans out. Some called us “5 bob a day
murderers” but the politicians were the murderers.
As prisoners, the Germans were like any other
person, quite mild of course. One of them might
have been Hitler [he was taken prisoner in WWI].

At Anzac Day reporters from different papers and
TV stations swamped me. After Anzac Day it all
went quiet on the Western Front again. I don’t feel
I’ve done anything to deserve any special attention.
I think the only reason for the publicity is that I’ve
lived so long, not for what I’ve done.

People say we are glorifying war. This is quite
wrong. We are remembering our dead. Anyone who
has seen war and glorifies war is a lunatic. It’s an
awful business seeing men like that. War is a stupid
business and it doesn’t settle anything, mostly.
There’s politicians that make war but they don’t go
to it. If they had to go, there wouldn’t be any
(laughter). That’s only my opinion. There should
never be wars but there always have been and while
there are men, there will be war. I don’t believe in
war but I believe in remembering. I don’t need a
Remembrance Day because I will remember
always, but young people need reminding because
they have not known the horrors of war and we
hope they never will.

The Australian Army were noted for their Mateship.

Do unto others as you would have others do unto
you - that’s an old saying I remembered as a kid.
If people followed that, we wouldn’t
have half the troubles we have today.
Of course they don’t. A lot of them
‘do others before they do you’.

Always be prepared to defend your
country if necessary. I like the
Australian flag. I reckon it’s a crime to
alter that flag. It’s the one national
flag that does represent the country.
It’s got the Southern Cross that
represents the country. That was the
first thing the troops looked for when
they were sailing back to Australia.
We knew we were getting close when
we saw that ‘cause it’s not seen from
other parts of the world. The French
flag, what does that represent?
Nothing! The Australian flag
represents the country more than any
flag that I can think of. I know a lot of
men that died under that flag. I think
about 60,000 men died from Australia
in the Great War. That’s a lot for a
small country, isn’t it? It was a good
enough flag for them, wasn’t it? The
fact that I was born in Australia was
the best thing that happened in my
life. Because of what I’ve seen of
other countries, Australia is the best
country in the world.

I’ve been a carpenter on mostly city
buildings. I worked on the Hotel
Australia when they added a few
floors to it. I used to walk from
Belmore to Circular Quay to collect
rations when there was no work. In a
way, the Depression was worse for us
than the war. During the war we only
had ourselves to think about; during
the Depression we had a wife and
family. I had 2 daughters. One died 5
years ago and the other’s in America.
She was born in 1926 so she must be
70. Taking it all round, I’ve had a
pretty good life. Only thing I’m sorry
about - my only remaining daughter
is in America.

I’d like to see 100. Not sure what
would happen beyond that; I’m not
worrying beyond that. The way I’m
going now, I will. I’m in quite good
health. There’s only 4 years to go to
reach the year 2000. There’s not
much I can do about reaching it but
I’d like to. They say they’re getting
me a walking frame. I’d look a
funny old sight getting up the cliffs at Gallipoli in
me walking frame (laughter). You know, I can’t
remember climbing up there. That book, ‘The Last of
the Anzacs’ said of the 17 still alive from Gallipoli,
I’m possibly the last one from the original landing.
I went back after 75 years, in 1990. One fellow
had his 103rd birthday out there. We had a bit of a
party and a birthday cake. The Turks were very nice,
no hatred at all. Here’s a photo I had taken with a
nice young Turkish family.

I don’t mind telling my story if it will be of
interest to young people. I’d like to tell them:
Never get involved in foreign wars like Vietnam
but always be ready to defend your country, not
someone else’s. Let’s hope they never have to ‘cause
war is a terrible business.

I’ll be 100 in November, on the 11th day, the day
the war ended. The best present I ever had or am
likely to have. I was going on 90 days’ leave. I was
on a troopship in the Indian Ocean when I heard the
good news.

Getting old is simple... just don’t die. I’m not
afraid of dying, it’s the way of dying. If it’s quick
you won’t know anything about it.

I had the honour of meeting and recording Ted
Matthews on 4 visits to the Collaroy War Veterans
Home, from 19 June 1996 to 18 September 1996
when Ted had just 7 weeks to go till his 100th
birthday. As I left I said, “Ted, you’re not allowed to
die. You just have to wake up 49 mornings,” and he
replied, “Yes, but the hard part is they must be in a
row!” Seven weeks later he must have given
interviews to dozens and dozens of reporters from all
over Australia. As his son-in-law, Duke Phillips said,
“He was a man that never asked for anything but
gave an enormous amount.” I like to think that my
record of Ted is the most complete as it is made up
100% of his words. There is nothing like flesh for
fleshing out history. Archives cannot compete.
There are 3 coincidences about Ted Matthews
which inspired the media and the people of
Australia:

That, just as the steamroller of history rolled over
onto his 100th birthday, he became the last living
Anzac from the Gallipoli landing.

That this event should happen of all days on
Armistice Day, the day the war ended.

That of all the men, the last sentinel, the last
spokesman after 81 years, should be not just another
crumbled-up, uncommunicative hospital patient of
100, but a well-dressed dignified man who was able
to receive and entertain our Prime Minister and many
others... and such a thinking man... such a
humanitarian.

At the going down of the sun, and in the morning,
we will remember them... Lest we forget.

Following are some of the tributes to the Last
Anzac which appeared in the press, The Daily
Telegraph, 11 December 1997: ‘Ted Matthews never
wanted to be a hero. But, by outliving the other
16,000 young Australians who went ashore at
Gallipoli on April 25, 1915, Matthews left his mark
on the history of a nation. ... (He) downplayed any
suggestion that he was a national treasure...
Perhaps those who make history are less impressed
by their deeds than those of us who are left to stand
in awe and appreciation.’

‘He was the living embodiment of the greatest of
all Australian legends. He was a great larrikin, he
always spoke his mind.’ NSW RSL president Rusty
Priest.

‘His death removes the last link with the most
defining moment in Australia’s history. He was a
man of great spirit and I spent a very enjoyable hour
with him last year.’ Prime Minister John Howard.

‘He was one of the fine group of brave young men
who created for this country the Anzac legend,
encompassing the spirit of courage, mateship and
determination.’ Federal Veterans Affairs Minister
Bruce Scott.

‘There emerged from that conflict - and from the
deeds of men like Ted Matthews at Gallipoli in
particular - a strong new spirit - the spirit of what it
is to be Australian.’

‘The foundations of our nation were built by the
courage and bravery of Mr Matthews and the
Anzacs.’ Premier Bob Carr.

Mick Joffe

’95

More Characters

Since the early 1970s, Mick Joffe's passion has been to caricature and record endangered characters of Australia, and the world.
As of 2015, the majority of these interviews exist only in manuscript form.